The
X-ray image of 3C295 shows an explosive galaxy embedded in a vast cloud
of hot gas. This cloud, which contains over a hundred galaxies, is more
than two million light years in diameter and has a temperature of fifty
million degrees. The X-rays from the central galaxy are concentrated in
three bright knots that form a line. The central knot coincides with the
center of the galaxy; these X rays are probably produced by matter falling
into a supermassive black hole. The upper and lower knots are in the same
location as two large lobes of radio emission. The distance from the top
to the bottom knot is about 100,000 light years, comparable to the diameter
of our Milky Way galaxy.
|
 |
Angular
size of box = 40 arcsec, corresponding to 900,000 light years
|
|
